(Credits: Chevy Chase)
Thu 28 August 2025 3:00, UK
Chevy Chase is a hard man to like.
Pretty much anyone who has ever worked with him has some sort of story about him being a bit of a knob. He and Bill Murray came to blows backstage on an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1978. His Community co-star Joel McHale has an entire section in his autobiography dedicated to a fight the two had, which supposedly left Chase with a dislocated shoulder. And those are just the incidents we know about.
The thing about Chase is that, while he might be a prickly person, he’s damn good at what he does. He is a class A comic with the track record to prove it. His character on Community, an out-of-touch white millionaire who has a habit of saying exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time, is the best thing about the show. Apparently, he won’t be in the long-awaited film adaptation of the series, which is understandable, but also a crying shame.
In an interview with Jimmy Carter (not that one), the inaugural host of the SNL ‘Weekend Update’ was asked which of his contributions to cinema were his favourite. Given he’s been in a host of comedy classics, this was a cruel question to ask. Never one to miss an opportunity to talk about himself, however, Chase provided plenty of answers.
“God, what a terrible dilemma,” he joked. At least, we hope he was joking. “I’d say, uh, probably Caddyshack, Fletch, [National Lampoon’s] Vacation. [Memoirs of an] Invisible Man, Three Amigos, Funny Farm… I’m just throwing out the ones that, you know, are just tending to stand out right now, that were fun to do,” he admitted.
Caddyshack is probably the answer most people would agree with. The Harold Ramis-directed 1980s sports comedy follows the exploits of Michael O’Keefe’s Danny, a young man attempting to secure his future by winning a caddy scholarship through a local golf course. Chase plays Ty Webb, a talented rich-kid and one of the golfers Danny works for. Bill Murray’s also in it playing Carl Spackler, the erratic club groundskeeper and undisputed star of the movie, with whom Chase famously made up in a bid to get the movie over the line.
Chase played Clark Griswold in five films as part of National Lampoon’s Vacation series. Perhaps the most famous entry in the franchise is 1989’s Christmas Vacation, in which Griswold attempts to put on a classic Christmas for his family, only for every turn bringing in a new chaos to deal with. He reprised the role in 2015’s Vacation, a reboot starring Ed Helms as Clark’s grown-up son, and his other recurring roles include playing Irwin ‘Fletch’ Fletcher in two movies, Fletch and Fletch Lives. The series was rebooted in 2022 with Jon Hamm in the title role.
Three Amigos, which paired Chase up with Steve Martin and Martin Short, is another cult favourite, thanks in part to the great Randy Newman soundtrack it contains. Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Funny Farm are much more obscure. Neither comedy was particularly successful, although it did give Chase a chance to work with legendary directors John Carpenter and George Roy Hill, respectively. Perhaps that’s why they’re so prominent in his mind. Either that, or he just wants people to actually watch them, hoping for cult status notoriety.
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